Thousands of pages, recordings cover decades of daily life

Dec. 7, 2013

Comal County, Texas, deputies arrest Felix Vail in May in Canyon Lake, Texas. / Special to The Clarion-Ledger

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Serial killer suspect Felix Vail's journals from 1985 through his May 17 arrest — now in the hands of authorities — number more than 2,400 pages. Many entries cover his daily activities, including his dating, while others deal with his philosophy of life.

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Felix Vail talked of murder, martial arts and drinking animal blood in his journals and recorded conversations obtained by The Clarion-Ledger.

The journals and recordings, now in the hands of authorities, provide insight into the mind of this Clay County native and potential serial killer awaiting trial in Louisiana in the 1962 homicide of his first wife.

Authorities charged Vail with murder following a 2012 special investigative report and subsequent reporting by The Clarion-Ledger into Mary Vail’s 1962 death and the disappearances of two other women.

Private investigator Gina Frenzel, while working undercover, recorded more than a dozen conversations with Vail.

When someone thought about attacking him physically, “I reminded him who I am,” Vail told Frenzel in an April 26 conversation. “He’s scared of me. He doesn’t know how much I know about killing people, murdering, pain, incapacitating people.”

Vail was with Mary Vail when she reportedly drowned in a river in Lake Charles, La. He is also the last known person to be seen with his common law wife, Sharon Hensley, who disappeared in 1973, and his teenage wife, Annette, who disappeared in 1984. Both are presumed dead.

Vail’s journals cover more than 2,400 pages from 1985 to 2013, listing his daily activities.

Enzo Yaksic, founder of the Serial Homicide Expertise and Information Sharing Collaborative, said entries by serial killer suspects can range from mundane activities to recollection of past exploits.

Without mentioning names, Vail wrote on April 3, 1991: “Wanting some to forgive all egos for pain they’ve caused me and each other and a parallel desire to see them blink out with or without remorse. The only thing that will erase some of the pain is to know that each person (ego) will not cause its particular kind of pain to me or to anyone else again.”

Mary Vail’s death was originally ruled an accidental homicide, but a review of that autopsy by the current coroner in Lake Charles determined otherwise, leading to Vail’s May 17 arrest on a murder charge. The autopsy report showed a 4-inch bruise on the left side of her head and neck as well as a scarf 4 inches into her mouth.

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In a recent letter, Felix Vail wrote to Frenzel that “all the charges are fabricated” and that “a large amount of money, hate and political ambitions are behind them.”

Mary’s brother, Will Horton, laughed at the suggestion his family has money or political influence, saying, “That’s totally absurd.”

Vail’s journals and his conversations with Frenzel often touch on inflicting pain and abusing animals.

In his discussion of murder with Frenzel, Vail talked of his in-depth knowledge of martial arts.

Inside Vail’s former attic storeroom in Tulsa, Okla., The Clarion-Ledger found dozens of his martial arts books, some with photographs illustrating ways to incapacitate.

Despite that interest, he never studied under a teacher, said his one-time friend, Scott Porter, who holds more than one black belt.

“Felix no doubt knows how to inflict pain, but he will never face an equal or his better on level ground,” Porter said. “A coward and a bully? Yes. A martial artist? No.”

In his journals, Vail — who, according to his journals and family members, spent no time hunting or fishing — declared his philosophy of life:

“Kill and eat, restrain, redirect, release, burn, plow, nurture and explore, be sexual, be gentle, be forceful, inquire and instruct and do it all with joy and love,” he wrote June 10, 1989.

In an Oct. 17, 2005, journal entry, he wrote of a dream: “I was in bed with a woman, and I was looking at an incredible assortment of knives and wondering if the knives were for cutting up large animals or even humans.”

In both his journals and his conversations, he talked about being “autonomous,” acting outside society’s parameters.

Both he and a nephew “have enough autonomy that we are held in suspicion by all of our family and friends for being able to think of something and do it without looking at whether it’s legal or not, or permissible by society or not,” he said.

He also discusses eating “live” food, including grapes pulled from vines and raw meat. “If you were going to eat animals, you would have to kill them and drink the blood,” he said. “Suck it out of the body and drink it right then. That would be live meat.”

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Mary Rose said that, after she deeded her Tulsa home in 1984 to her daughter, Annette, who was married to Vail, they spoke of two cats she had left behind — Yawni and Puff.

She said Annette replied that Felix had killed them, describing them as “a bother.”

When mockingbirds chased away birds visiting his mother’s bird feeder, he wrote that he killed as many mockingbirds as he could.

Two days later, he penned: “Shot the three-legged dog and cleaned up the garbage.”

In a conversation with Frenzel, Vail talked of pinning an opossum down with a sword, “so the dog got bites and tastes.”

The next morning, he hauled off the dead opossum, he said.

Jack Levin, author of the 2008 book, “Serial Killers and Sadistic Murders — Up Close and Personal,” said he found that more than half of serial killers he studied had abused animals, many of them maximizing the suffering of dogs and cats.

He did a study comparing 150 animal abusers to those who never abused animals, he said. “The animal abusers were five times more likely to commit human violence, such as rape and robbery. They were also four times more like to commit property offenses.”

The common belief is people “graduate” from animals to people, he said, “but we also found they may start with people and end with animals — or do both at the same time.”